Description

Hotel Arena features modern and spacious hotel rooms in the East of Amsterdam, next to Oosterpark and close to Artis Zoo. The brightly coloured rooms have flat-screen TVs, high ceilings and large windows. Hotel Arena offers a lively combination of hotel, restaurant, cafe, club and meeting rooms.

Spectacular, historic hotel with original features

Housed in a monumental historic buildings that has had various functions including hospital, mental institution and more recently youth centre and cultural institution, Hotel Arena offers an original and sophisticated hotel with great public spaces and cool design that attracts a broad cross section of travellers. The fully renovated premises have retained much of their authentic original features including beautiful ornate cast iron balustrades on the imposing staircases and eye catching columns which are spectacular architectural features in themselves. Furnished with contemporary Dutch designed furniture including Maarten Baas’ legendary “Smoke Chairs” it is a hotel with a very special atmosphere and an amazing history.

The extensive outdoor seating area is a great place to relax with a drink on warm summer evenings. The rear outdoor seating area, with its large lounge seats and cushions, is ideal for enjoying a delicious lunch in the garden or Friday afternoon drinks.

A solidly soundproofed nightclub in an old church

Hotel Arena’s nightclub is situated in a monumental building, an old church hall with marble pillars, high arches and imposing banisters. During the day it is an elegant venue for business and cultural events and at night and on the weekend it is a dance temple where national and international DJs preside. The hall has two dance floors that are occupied by a lively mix of Amsterdammers, tourists and hotel guests from Hotel Arena. Don’t worry though, the building is very well soundproofed and if you do not wish to party your night away, and prefer to retreat to your room, you will not be bothered by the music.

Hotel Arena has recently announced extensive renovation plans, which will open the hotel and hotel grounds up to Oosterpark which adjoins the site, making it an even more special and spectacular place. Of course every effort will be made to minimise any inconvenience to guests and local residents. Renovations commence in July 2015.

Hotel Arena has a Green Key Gold certificate

We give Hotel Arena a full Conscious Travel rating for the environment because they were awarded a Green Key Gold certificate, meaning they satisfy 27 mandatory sustainable criteria and 29 out of 55 optional criteria.

This means they focus on environmentally sustainable practices including fair trade toiletries, using only envronmentally friendly cleaning products, as well as using energy saving lighting, and only energy from sustainable sources. Additionally they have hotel bikes for guests use, charger points for electric cars and encourage and facilitate the use of public transport.

Furthermore in terms of social responsibility, they are a learning company, hiring young, semi handicapped staff, providing them with employment opportunities that may have not been otherwise available to them.

Unfortunately we cannot ascertain if they use organic meat/food in kitchen, even though they do focus on reducing food waste.

About the AuthorCharles

I am passionate about great experiences, service and authenticity. Businesses that are passionate about making a positive contribution to a sustainable world get my attention. They are the local heroes I’ll promote via Conscious Travel Guide. I hope their (and our) efforts inspire you to be more conscious too. Photo by Odette Li Corbett